Titanic and Catch Me If You Can remind me that I keep meaning to rent What's Eating Gilbert Grape, because I need to see Arnie Grape.

Leonardo DiCaprio is a brilliant actor, no question about it... the biggest turnoff about him, for me, is the teeny-bopper fan girls with the collective, pooled IQ of a lima bean. And I feel bad because it's not even his fault. I just have this unfounded fear that if I admit to liking him or his acting, my brain will spontaneously evaporate and hiss out my ears like the steam out of a whistling tea kettle.

*runs to duct tape earmuffs to the side of my head*

It's unfortunate that he keeps getting these Pretty Boy Hero roles that show very little of what he's capable of. Frank Abagnale Jr. was a little less spoon-gagging than Jack Dawson though. Even so, CMIYC was made much lighter than I expected. That was probably done to appeal to the Leo Girlios. Which is very unfortunate, IMHO.

Like, HEY SPIELBERG, IT WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED IF YOU HELPED ENCOURAGE THE GIRLIOS TO GROW THEIR OWN BRAINS.

Comments

Do you have any examples of Leo having any acting skills? Because I haven't seen any yet (although I'm hoping to make it to Gangs of New York sometime next week, and I'm guessing that might be one of those examples.

Well, how do you know he's any good? Maybe you just think (or hope) he's got acting skills but he actually blows chunks, and not just because of his roles.

I mean, Solaris (the recent Soderbergh remake) was supposedly this deep, fantastic movie with career-defining performances from its stars, and frankly, it was far from it, and they were far from them. The entire thing reeked of crappiness and was definitely over-hyped. The fact that the director and actors all went on record as having said it was so wonderful means they're either all media whores or they obviously don't even know what good is any more (or most likely, both).

So, anyways, if you've never actually seen him do a great performance, I'd wonder if he's actually capable of one.

(And a lot of people confuse "quirky" and "unusual" with quality, I think mainly because it confuses their dulled senses, so it's very possible his role in WEGG was overrated.)

Maybe you just think (or hope) he's got acting skills but he actually blows chunks, and not just because of his roles.

Possibly. I'm willing to give Leo a chance though, because I'm thinking that if he really wasn't that good, he wouldn't be cast in more than a few bit parts even if he had a pretty face. There are tons of pretty boy faces with talent out there to choose from. An actor isn't just a one-time thing, like one bad movie.

Have you seen Brendan Fehr starring in anything lately? I haven't. Saw him once in an obscure-ish bad horror flick and never again.

Of course, in all fairness, there are a lot of different forms of talent - and sometimes people have a certain screen charisma that makes them rise above some other people, even if they don't particularly have a lot of talent at capturing emotion and showing it on-screen. It's possible Leo's got that - and that's not an insignificant thing, I have to admit.

For instance, I like Chow Yun Fat. I have to admit, though, that I've never really seen him play any really moving, deep parts that made me think "wow, he's a good freakin' actor". However, I've seen him play many parts where he just lit up the screen and made me think "wow, he kicks ass".

Some actors also have a lot of talent at portraying a single type of character, or a single emotion - for instance, Sean Connery is wonderful in a certain type of role, but I haven't seen him really show a lot of depth in his portrayals. He does one character, and he does it really well. Harrison Ford is similar - he's got a few characters that he does really well, and not much else (from what I've seen). A lot of times people say actors are typecast, but it's also true that a lot of actors don't have a very wide range - so they really have to be typecast if they want to succeed.

I guess part of what I'm getting at is that it's really hard to say what talent and quality really encompass. I suppose I should be less cynical and say that maybe Leo really does have some talent, just from the fact that he's managed to get so much work and so many positive reviews from directors and so many fans.

Exactly. He's a very pretty face (he looks like a lovely young David Duchovny). My point was that pretty faces alone don't necessarily get you the big parts. Luck and looks certainly have something to do with how far you get in the business, but when it comes down to it, there _has_ to be talent in there.